Reglikedomain industry desk

Auctions, Less is More — In Domain

Offering fewer domains can result in more sales.

This month’s SnapNames showcase auction ended with only twelve domain sales for a total of $44,149. That’s a dismal 4% sell through rate.

Why did the auction perform so poorly? There are a number of possible reasons, but I think one is that there were too many domains in the auction. Previous SnapNames monthly auctions have had fewer than 100 domains; this one had regarding 300. Given all of the online auctions going on at various venues in any given month, this is too many domains.

It seems that many auction firms try to throw everything against the wall and see what sticks. It’s tempting. Following all, if I put 300 domains in an auction it would seem I can sell more domains and get more commission. But the opposite can be true: an auction with 100 or fewer quality domains can often outperform a larger auction.

Moniker is whittling down the number of domains in its marque extended auctions. Hopefully it will go back to a smaller auction for the monthly showcase on SnapNames, too.

Also on the wire

Other reporting from the domain desk.

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